Sasha Minsky stands beside the banner for the Alexandra Youth Swim Academy.
Sasha Madiba Minsky is a junior at The Potomac School in McLean who is passionate about helping others. Since 2020, he has been developing and expanding partnerships with various organizations, businesses and individuals to help fund swim lessons for children living in one of South Africa’s poorest townships.
“There are so many drownings in South Africa, especially in the Alexanda area,” Sasha said. “Their community is so connected that even one drowning has an impact.” The raging Jukskei River runs through Alexandra's poorest areas. On Dec. 3, 2022, sixteen people drowned, including a three-month-old baby, when heavy rains caused flash flooding at the Jukskei River in Alexandra. They were participating in a baptism ceremony, according to News24.
Drowning is among the main causes of death in South Africa. It claims four people, on average, every day, nearly 1,500 people annually. Nearly 30 percent percent of the victims are children under the age of 14. In South Africa, the drowning rate per 100,000 population for 2019 was 2.73. In the U.S., the rate was 1.1 per 100,000 population for 2019.
The children line up to get their swim gear and supplies.
Even though Sasha's school is "very big on community service learning," as he put it, this is a very individual project. In 2020, Sasha embraced the challenge of how best to create a program that would teach Alexandra's children to swim. COVID-19 slowed the program's launch, but not the fire that burned within Sasha to keep going. His efforts and funding from the many partners he successfully approached in the United States and abroad helped make the Alexandra Youth Swim Academy a reality in 2023.
The ultimate goal of Sasha's swim program, he says, is to "drown proof" the children rather than teach them the four main swim strokes, butterfly, freestyle, breast, and backstroke.
“Alongside his father, Jeff Minsky, Sasha’s relentless resolve and philanthropic spirit saw them raise more than $20 000 in swimming kits that were awarded to 120 Afrika Tikkun and AYSA beneficiaries,” according to a statement by partner Afrika Tikkun.
Sasha and his father, Jeff Minsky, flew from Dulles International Airport to Tambo Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, on the evening of Friday, Jan. 13. After getting the equipment through customs, Sasha literally hit the week ahead running. He competed in the Dis-Chem 21k marathon on Sunday. Time and altitude differences made it difficult, but Sasha persevered.
On Monday, Sasha went on a tour of Alexandra Township in Johannesburg with BabaTwale, the swimming project's primary partner. After visiting the house Nelson Mandela lived in as a 22-year-old lawyer, Sasha went to see the Jukskei River, the site of so many drownings. He could see the shanties crowded together in the floodplain. In the following days, Sasha went to the other partner sites, like King David Academy and Afrika Tikkun, which teach youth about agriculture and how to use farming for personal development. Other visits followed, beginning with his meeting with Anto Jordan, president of Aquatics Gauteng, a partner organization, leading to Sunday’s launch day for the swim program.
This was the moment Sasha had planned, altered course during the pandemic, and brought to fruition. King David High School(Linksfield)granted the young children access to their pool for swimming lessons, coached by Aquatics Gauteng instructors every Sunday. As the event's keynote speaker, Sasha looked over the crowd. He highlighted the program and its partners, eventually leading to splashes in the pool and the start of lessons. “We're in our very beginner days when they’re just learning how to swim in general,” Sasha said.
As Marc Lubner, Afrika Tikkun Group CEO, said, “In a world increasingly focused on self-interests, leaders like Sasha and Jeff offer a different approach, the high road towards human togetherness. We would rather choose their way of outstanding service-driven leadership.”
In the US, an average of 3,500 to 4,000 people drown per year. That is an average of 10 fatal drownings per day.
Drowning is the leading cause of unintentional injury-related death for children ages 1-4.
African-American children ages 5 to 19 drown in swimming pools at rates 5.5 times higher than Caucasian children in the same age range.
Seventy-nine percent of children in households with incomes less than $50,000 have few-to-no swimming skills.
Source: StopDrowningNow.org